UK lockdown to continue as coronavirus deaths keep rising

Britain’s coronavirus lockdown is to continue as the country heads towards one of its biggest holiday weekends of the year while the death toll keeps growing, it was announced Thursday.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, standing in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announced the decision after chairing a meeting of Britain’s emergency COBRA committee.

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He announced there had been a further 881 hospital deaths linked to the virus in the previous 24 hours. It brought Britain’s death toll to 7,978.

The good news was that Johnson was on Thursday evening moved out of intensive care after nearly four days in an intensive care unit, but remained in hospital.

A No. 10 spokesperson said the prime minister will receive close monitoring during the early phase of his recovery. “He is in extremely good spirits,” the spokesperson said.

Johnson introduced the lockdown on March 23, telling all citizens to stay at home, with outside journeys limited.

The fear was that a relaxation of the lockdown could risk seeing millions of people heading to seaside resorts and tourism hotspots during the four-day Easter holiday which starts Friday and lasts until Monday.

Raab urged people to stay at home during the holiday rather than heading out. There had been speculation that the lockdown could have been made more stringent.

“At this stage, the government continues to gather data to determine the effects of the lockdown and physical distancing measures,” he said.

He said it was too soon to say conclusively whether the measures were working.

But Raab said most people were following the instructions to limit their activities and to practice social distancing.